Current Board Members

Note: Affiliations listed for informational purposes only.

Edward Andersson

Deputy Director, Involve

Edward Andersson is the Deputy Director of Involve, the UK's leading engagement focused think tank, where he has lead responsibility for developing and managing Involve's practical participation projects. He is an expert advisor for peopleandparticipation.net, one of the UKs most comprehensive participation sites, and he advises a number of organisations on public engagement strategies. In the past Edward has delivered participatory processes and training with the BBC, the Ministry of Justice, the NCVO, the States of Jersey and numerous local authorities. He is an established expert on various methods of engagement and a member of the International Association for Public Participation and the International Association of Facilitators. He lives in London, UK..

Joanne Caddy

Joanne Caddy has over 15 years of experience in the comparative analysis of public policy, public engagement and governance. She is the author and editor of numerous OECD reports on open and inclusive policy making, including “Focus on Citizens: Public Engagement for Better Policy and Services” (2009), "Evaluating Public Participation in Policy Making" (2005), "Promises and Problems of E-democracy: Challenges of Online Citizen Engagement" (2004), and "Citizens as Partners: Information, Consultation and Public Participation in Policy-making" (2001). In 2006, she was seconded to the New Zealand State Services Commission (SSC) for a year, where she served as a Senior Adviser and helped draft the SSC “Guide to Online Participation." This Guide was written on a wiki, with inputs from a broad community of practice, and was published online in 2007. She has a keen interest in the application of new technologies, the Internet and participative web platforms to the work of government and is a staunch believer in exploring innovative ways to leverage networks to develop, discuss and disseminate policy relevant knowledge. She is a member of the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2). She lives in the western suburbs of Paris, France.

Anne Carroll, Vice Chair

Owner, Carroll, Franck & Associates

Anne Carroll has been a strategic planner and public involvement consultant for over 25 years, serving primarily the public sector. She specializes in designing and leading authentic and transparent public participation processes, bringing underrepresented voices to the table, and using innovative approaches to gather meaningful input. For a number of years she has taught strategic planning and public participation design to graduate students at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. She mentors young professionals, provides training in inclusive public participation design and online P2 tools, and co-authored with Dr. John Bryson the Public Participation Fieldbook (2007). In addition to serving on the board of E-Democracy, she helped form two E-Democracy Issues Forums and is actively involved in several local forums. Anne is a board member for the International Association for Public Participation USA, is an elected member of the St. Paul (Minnesota, USA) Board of Education, and serves on a statewide diversity committee for the Minnesota League of Women Voters. She has lived in several different countries and USA states, and currently lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA.

Matt Leighninger

Executive Director, Deliberative Democracy Consortium (DDC)

Matt Leighninger is the Executive Director of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium (DDC), a network that includes the major organizations in the field of deliberation and democratic governance. The DDC includes practitioners and researchers representing more than 50 foundations, nonprofit organizations, and universities, collaborating to support research activities and advance practice at all levels of government, in North America and around the world. Over the last fourteen years, Leighninger has worked with citizen involvement efforts in over 100 communities, in 40 states and three Canadian provinces; roughly 25,000 people have taken part in those projects. Most of this work was supported by Everyday Democracy (formerly the Study Circles Resource Center), of which he is a Senior Associate. Leighninger has also been a consultant to the National League of Cities, Centers for Disease Control, NeighborWorks America, and the League of Women Voters. His first book, The Next Form of Democracy: How Expert Rule is Giving Way to Shared Governance – and Why Politics Will Never Be the Same, was released in early 2007 by Vanderbilt University Press. He in an American who lives in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

Mick Souder, Treasurer

Co-Founder 1994, Board Vice Chair 1996-2008

Mick Souder has been an advocate of using communication technology to empower people to affect their societies for the past 25 years. This has included helping start not-for-profit Internet services (Minneapolis Telecommunications Network River Project), training (Access Minnesota Main Street local e-commerce project), teaching elementary school students to produce community radio (Zuni Public Schools), community access television (camera operator, board member and President, Durango Community Access Television) and helping write a book on applying the principles of e-commerce to state and local government. Mick has been involved with E-Democracy.org since its inception in 1994 serving as forum manager of its first full-time forum, MN-Politics, helping kick start the St. Paul Issues forum, assisting in establishing the rules system used by the organization's forums, helping incorporate E-Democracy.org and serving on its Board of Directors from incorporation (except in 2009). Mick holds a Master's degree in technical communication focused on computer-mediated communications. He is a successful grant writer and has managed costing and budget creation on projects for up to $1B. He is employed by IBM.

Mary Reid, Board Chair

Former Councillor, Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, England

Mary Reid lives in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, England where she has served as a local councillor from 1997 through 2010, representing the ward of Chessington North and Hook. She most recently held the post of Chair of the South of the Borough Neighbourhood Committee. From 2004 to 2006 she held the Executive portfolio for Children and Young People's Services, and before that, for two years, her portfolio was Participation and Communication. She served as Mayor of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames for the year 2006-2007. Mary has a deep interest in e-government, and in e-democracy in particular. From November 2003 to March 2006 she chaired the UK Local e-Democracy National Project. When that project ended she joined the Board of the International Centre of Excellence for Local e-Democracy as Vice Chair. Mary worked professionally in further education for many years and writes educational books on IT related subjects under the name K Mary Reid. Her own University education covered Philosophy, Education and Computing over three degrees, including an MSc in Intelligent Knowledge Based Systems from Imperial College, London.

Alan Rosenblatt, Ph.D.

Alan Rosenblatt is the Associate Director for Online Advocacy at the Center for American Progress and CAP Action Fund, where he directs the organizations' social media strategy. He is a frequent speaker and author on digital media, advocacy, and politics, including social networking, blogging, grassroots, and mobile advocacy strategies. He is the founder of the Internet Advocacy Center and the Internet Advocacy Roundtable; an adjunct professor at Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, and American Universities, where he teaches Media and Politics in the Digital Age, Internet Politics, Digital Political Strategies, and Internet Advocacy Communications; a blogger at the Huffington Post, TechPresident.com and DrDigiPol.com, and a former fellow at George Washington University's Institute for Politics, Democracy, & the Internet. Alan is also a founding team member of Media Bureau Networks, a pioneer in streaming media services; a contributing editor to PoliticsOnline.com; and serves on the editorial boards of several scholarly journals dedicated to the study of the Internet, politics, and government. He taught Political Science at George Mason University for nine years, where, in 1995, he launched the first-ever cyberpolitics course. With MBN, he webcasted live coverage of the 2000 presidential conventions. In 2001, he served as Vice President for the Online Advocacy Services division at Stateside Associates. From 2003 to 2005 he served as Director of Training Programs at e-advocates. Alan has a Ph.D. in Political Science from American University, an M.A. in Political Science from Boston College, and a B.A. in Political Science and Philosophy from Tufts University. He lives in Arlington, Virginia.

Past Board Members

Steven Clift is a founder of E-Democracy.Org in 1994 and served as Board Chair through 2008. He is an online strategist on the use of the Internet in democracy, governance, and community. One of world's leading experts on e-democracy, he has presented hundreds of times across 27 countries. Through his Democracies Online e-mail announcement list and Publicus.Net web site, he shares knowledge, practical advice and original articles and presentations directly to thousands of subscribers and visitors. Steven has been named among “The 25 Who Are Changing the World of Internet and Politics” by Politics Online and in 2006 received a fellowship from Ashoka, a global association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs. He has served as advisor to the Markle Foundation's Web White & Blue online election information partnership and organized a major online presidential debate in 2000. He coordinated the State of Minnesota's government portal effort from 1994-1997and served as executive director of the Minnesota Government Information Access Council in 1997. He graduated from Winona State University, with a B.A. in Political Science and attended graduate school at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota where he also worked for the Center for Democracy and Citizenship and helped launch the online Public Policy Network in 1993. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

David Erickson

Director of e-Strategy, Tunheim Partners

As Director of e-Strategy, Tunheim Partners' Internet marketing practice, David Erickson specializes in strategic online communication. David has been marketing online since 1995, first as a freelancer, and then in 1997 as the founder and president of e-Strategy. For the next 10 years, he conceived and executed countless strategic Internet marketing plans on behalf of his clients. David joined Tunheim Partners in 2008. In 1998, David co-founded MN-Politics.com and he is a former co-publisher of Politics In Minnesota and co-hosted a political talk radio show. He is a former Hubert H. Humphrey Institute Policy Fellow. David blogs about strategic online communication at his e-Strategy Internet Marketing Blog. He has been involved with E-Democracy.Org as either a participant or a volunteer since 1994. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Dan Jellinek

Founder and Managing Director, Headstar

Dan Jellinek is co-founder and managing director of Headstar, a publishing, research and events company focusing on technology, government and social issues. Headstar is a pioneer in email publishing and online debate. Its publications include E-Government Bulletin; and E-Access Bulletin which access to technology by people with disabilities. Headstar also carries out work for the Parliamentary IT Committee (PITCOM), writing technology policy briefings for MPs and Peers. In Dan’s early career as a journalist he contributed extensively to The Guardian and the BBC’s WebWise campaign to help adult internet beginners. In 2001 he was a co-founder (with Tom Steinberg, James Crabtree and Derek Parkinson) of VoxPolitics, a think-tank examining the use of the internet in elections. Dan is chair of the Sussex Community Internet Project, a non-profit body helping community and voluntary groups in the South of England to use ICT. In 2004 Dan was voted among the top 10 people worldwide having the greatest impact on the way the internet is changing politics at the Fifth World Forum on e-Democracy in Paris. He lives in Brighton, England.

David R. Woolley

President, Thinkofit

David R. Woolley has been a pioneer in online conferencing for over 30 years. In 1973 he created PLATO Notes, one of the world's first conferencing systems and the direct progenitor of Lotus Notes, DEC Notes, and many others. He has designed conferencing facilities for many applications and has published a number of articles and book chapters on the subject. As the Executive Director of Twin Cities Free-Net, David spearheaded the building of an online community designed to support the neighborhoods of the Minneapolis - St. Paul metro area. For several years he has served on the board of E-Democracy.Org, an internationally renowned organization that uses Internet technology to engage citizens in local political discussions. He is also a veteran in the fields of interactive media and computer-based training, having designed a variety of authoring tools and supervised the development of many CBT applications. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Sheldon Mains

Scott Aikens

Tamara Blaschko

Scott Lystig Fritchie

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Board Member Duties

Title: Member, E-Democracy.Org Board of Directors; reports to Board

Role: To serve as a voting member of the E-Democracy.Org Board of Directors, supporting the mission and goals, developing policies, procedures and regulations, monitoring financial performance, supporting financial viability, and promoting E-Democracy.Org’s programs.

Term: Two years, renewable

Responsibilities and Expectations:

Participate in at least two-thirds of scheduled Board meetings per year and give sufficient notice to Board Chair when conflicts arise

Actively participate in scheduled Board retreats, planning meetings, committees, workshops, or other Board development activities agreed upon by the Board

Support and participate when possible in scheduled special events

Fully understand and support the mission and goals of E-Democracy.Org

Bring personal/professional expertise and that of others to support the mission and goals of E-Democracy

Establish policy

Develop and monitor short- and long-range planning goals

Hire, provide oversight for, and evaluate staff

Abide by the constitution and bylaws of E-Democracy.Org

Ensure fiscal controls and accountability

Ensure E-Democracy.Org meets all legal and corporate requirements

Support E-Democracy.Org’s ability to achieve its mission by actively supporting a variety of fundraising efforts

Represent and serve as an advocate for E-Democracy.Org

Avoid any conflict of interest or appearance of a conflict, and disclose such if unavoidable